Beyond Radical: Queer Theory and Bad Objects

qUCL are pleased to share details of the next event to be held by the AHRC-funded research network ‘Beyond Radical: Queer Theory and the UK’. 

Few fields have been as preoccupied with ’bad’ objects as queer theory. Through attending to what others might prefer to forget–shame, negativity, backwardness, to mention only a few–queer scholars have sought to re-orient normative hierarchies of value while also questioning aspects of their own field’s self-understanding. But what ‘objects’ (concepts, social structures, phenomena, as well as actual material things) remain irredeemable in contemporary queer scholarship? For example, is it possible to imagine a queer theory not antithetical to: categorisation, taxonomy, reason, heteronormativity, neoliberalism, the state? What objects do queer scholars not want to go near and how does reflecting on them create new possibilities in queer thought?

Confirmed speakers: Lisa Downing (Birmingham), Joan Lubin (Durham), Kyla Wazana Tompkins (Buffalo)

For more details and to sign up please go to Tickettailor: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/beyondradicalqueertheoryandtheuk/1190458

Image: Photo by Simon Abrams on Unsplash